gonna have a go at putting in my 1.5" body lift tomorrow, and am now wondering what to do about the gap ill have with the front bumper. last resort would be to fill it with trim, but i thought id throw this at ya with modding my brackets.

heres how its mounted and some approximate locations where i want to drill new holes on the bumper bracket (keeping the frame bracket holes as they are). i only want to move it up 1" maybe less since the top of the bumper is actually above the trim plate under the headlights and bottom grille section.



as you can see, there isnt much room to relocate bolt #3...any thoughts? or should i just redrill new mount holes through both frame bracket & bumper bracket? would adding more holes significantly compromise the strength of the brackets?

another pic to see more of the setup:



after seeing some of the mounting pics of the sahara bar (prado has similar brackets but without crush zones), there seem to be two different mounting holes on the bracket...so i shouldnt be worried about drilling new holes?

 

I wouldn't just drill new holes wherever as those holes look like they leave too little metal to account for bolt hole shear. Those brackets have the holes where they are for a reason. I'd fab up some new brackets or at least add some metal to where you are moving the bolts. This is especially true if you have a winch in there.

With only a 1.5" body lift...I'd do the body lift first, see what you think about the gap and then worry about the bumper. I had a 2" body lift on my 00 with an ARB and never worried about it...it wasn't that big of a deal.

 

well the lift is on, and by the looks of things, i dont have to alter my brackets. there seemed to be enough play for it...now it lines up pretty good. best part is, i dont have my 'clunk' from my sliders now

...but now i have to get my sliders relocated. thats one gap that kinda bugs me..oh well. not in a rush. not really noticable in the pics, but it feels that much higher. steering was really tight at first, reinstalled the steering extension, feels better now. the 285's are starting to look a lil dinky now haha. anyways...some pics

before:



after

 

Dude, you need a non-chrome rear bumper REALLY bad.

 

actually, i was thinking about chroming the ARB...haha. would you like to be the first to make a donation to the 'lose d0ubledowns rear chrome bumper' fund? its a worthy cause...